Taiwan Printed Circuit Board Industry

Dated：2018-03-23 Popularity：860

Taiwan, as a PCB manufacturing center for consumer electronics products, continued to surpass expectations last year. By analyzing Taiwan’s shipments of printed circuit boards, it is possible to predict the trends for the global electronics market.

Growth slowed down in early 2017, and shipments in January were negative compared to the same period of last year, and remained sluggish until April. However, shipments rebounded sharply in May 2017; the growth rate was black. Monthly shipment data increased from the previous month (except October 2017). Shipments increased and the revenue hit a record high.

At the end of 2017, the total revenue of listed PCB board manufacturers in Taiwan reached 599.4 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$20.4 billion), an increase of 9.58% compared to 2016. The growth rate of printed circuit board manufacturing in Taiwan was higher than that of other countries. In December 2017, the total revenue was 69.58% higher than that in December 2016.

Most flexible PCB boards are used in mobile devices. Apple mostly uses these FPC boards for smart phones, laptops and smart watches. iPhone8 and iPhoneX launched during Christmas which marked the 10th anniversary of the iPhone series. Most of Apple's products are assembled by Taiwanese companies. Thanks to the strong growth of Apple, the historical growth of FPC board revenue can be directly attributed to Apple's contribution.

Japan's Nippon Mektron and Fujikura are Apple's main suppliers of FPC boards, however, Apple decided to take a different direction and use Taiwanese suppliers. Recently, Apple's supply list has also added some Korean FPC board manufacturers. However, the other party has not yet confirmed, and Apple has continued to use a lot of FPC board fabricated by Taiwan PCB manufacturers.

In January 2018, shipments fell by 6.65% compared to December 2017, but this was attributable to seasonal fluctuations. What is worthy of recognition is that the total income in January increased by 31.64% compared with January 2017. Most Taiwanese printed circuit board manufacturers are very optimistic about this year's forecast, since sales in the first quarter exceeded expectations and pre-sales in the second quarter were still strong.